20,000 Demand Land Reform in El Salvador
About 20,000 peasants and workers marched through San Salvador on Saturday to demand land reform.
The workers, celebrating International Cooperative Day, denounced the policies of the U.S.-backed government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte, charging the president had not fulfilled his promise to redistribute large land holdings among the peasants.
The marchers, ranging from office workers in high heels to barefoot peasants, walked through the streets chanting slogans and demanding lower interest rates for agricultural loans, increased access to credit and a new law governing operations of cooperatives.
The marchers also called for an end to the 5 1/2-year-old civil war between the Salvadoran government and leftist guerrillas.
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